Multi-compartment insulated container systems

ABSTRACT

Multi-compartment insulated container systems and methods of using the same are described. In one embodiment, a container system includes a frame. The frame may include perimeter walls and interior walls interconnecting the perimeter walls, thereby forming a plurality of container sections having openings. At least one interior wall may be configured to facilitate heat transfer between neighboring container sections via heat conducting material. The system may include a plurality of access hatches covering at least some of the openings. The plurality of access hatches may be configured to retard heat transfer between the exterior of the frame and the interior via heat insulating material. In some embodiments, the frame may be configured to be housed within an exterior container. The exterior container may be thermally insulated.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to thermally insulated container systems. In particular, multi-compartment thermally insulated container systems are described.

Known thermally insulated container systems are not entirely satisfactory for the range of applications in which they are employed. For example, existing thermally insulated container systems, such as coolers, typically have only one compartment. Thus, opening the lid to the single compartment exposes the contents of the entire container to the ambient atmosphere, thereby diminishing the effectiveness of the container. Furthermore, such single compartment systems are not capable of maintaining several different temperatures simultaneously, as might be desired based on the items to be stored.

In addition, conventional thermally insulated container systems may allow ice and melt-water to commingle with items which are preferably kept dry. Conventional thermally insulated container systems may also allow for undesired movement of items, for example after ice has melted these items may float.

Thus, there exists a need for thermally insulated container systems that improve upon and advance the design of known thermally insulated container systems. Examples of new and useful thermally insulated container systems relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.

SUMMARY

Multi-compartment insulated container systems and methods of using the same are described below. In one embodiment, a container system includes a frame. The frame may include perimeter walls and interior walls interconnecting the perimeter walls, thereby forming a plurality of container sections having openings. At least one interior wall may be configured to facilitate heat transfer between neighboring container sections via heat conducting material. The system may include a plurality of access hatches covering at least some of the openings. The plurality of access hatches may be configured to retard heat transfer between the exterior of the frame and the interior via heat insulating material. In some embodiments, the frame may be configured to be housed within an exterior container. The exterior container may be thermally insulated.

In one embodiment a method of using a multi compartment insulated container system includes the steps of placing a first item into an opening of a first container section of a plurality of container sections, the plurality of container sections being disposed within a heat insulated exterior container; and closing a first access hatch of the first container section, thereby covering the opening and insulating the first item from an ambient environment via heat insulating material disposed in the access hatch. The plurality of container sections may be formed by a frame comprising perimeter walls and interior walls interconnecting the perimeter walls. At least one interior wall is configured to facilitate heat transfer between a neighboring container section via heat conducting material disposed within the at least one interior wall. The first container section may include an opening.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first example of a multi-compartment insulated container system.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the system of FIG. 1 including a first example of an access hatch.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the system of FIG. 1 including a second example of an access hatch.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the system of FIG. 1 showing the container sections filled with ice and food items.

FIG. 5 a is a plan view of a second example of a multi-compartment insulated container system including vertical slots in the interior walls.

FIG. 5 b is an elevation view of an insert configured to slide into a vertical slot.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the multi-compartment insulated container system of FIG. 5 a, showing how the insert of FIG. 5 b may be inserted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosed multi-compartment insulated container systems will become better understood through review of the following detailed description in conjunction with the figures. The detailed description and figures provide merely examples of the various inventions described herein. Those skilled in the art will understand that the disclosed examples may be varied, modified, and altered without departing from the scope of the inventions described herein. Many variations are contemplated for different applications and design considerations; however, for the sake of brevity, each and every contemplated variation is not individually described in the following detailed description.

Throughout the following detailed description, examples of various multi-compartment insulated container systems are provided. Related features in the examples may be identical, similar, or dissimilar in different examples. For the sake of brevity, related features will not be redundantly explained in each example. Instead, the use of related feature names will cue the reader that the feature with a related feature name may be similar to the related feature in an example explained previously. Features specific to a given example will be described in that particular example. The reader should understand that a given feature need not be the same or similar to the specific portrayal of a related feature in any given figure or example.

The disclosed multi-compartment insulated container systems provide a plurality of separate container sections. Each separate section may have its own thermally insulated access hatch, and thus each section may be kept thermally isolated from the other sections as well as the ambient atmosphere. Thus a user may access each compartment independent of the other compartments, allowing the items in the unaccessed compartments to remain cooler (or hotter) for longer.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, the walls that separate certain groups of adjacent compartments may be comprised of thermally conductive material. Thus, a heat source (such as a hotpack or an amount of hot water) or a heat sink (such as an amount of ice) may be placed in one compartment, and items to be heated or cooled, as desired, may be placed in an adjacent compartment. In this fashion, items may be kept separate from heat sources and/or heat sinks, thereby keeping the items dry. Furthermore, container sections containing items such as food, beverage or medicine may be opened without exposing the heat source and/or sink in an adjacent compartment section to the ambient environment.

In addition, by storing items in smaller containers and separately from heat sources and/or sinks, the multi-compartment insulated container system reduces the unwanted shifting of the items due to ice melt or transportation of the multi-compartment insulated container system.

In some embodiments, the multi-compartment insulated container system may be used in conjunction with a conventional insulated container system, such as a cooler. For example, in some embodiments, the multi-compartment insulated container system may be configured to slide snugly into the interior chamber of a cooler, thereby allowing the lid of the cooler to be closed with the multi-compartment insulated container system inside. In other embodiments, the multi-compartment insulated container system may be used as a stand-alone system.

With reference to FIGS. 1-4, a first example of a multi-compartment insulated container system 20, will now be described. Container system 20 comprises a frame having perimeter walls 31-34, interior walls 40-49. Interior walls 40-49 may interconnect perimeter walls 31-34, thereby forming a plurality of container sections 51-58 having openings. The openings may be covered by one or more access hatches, such as exemplary access hatches 71-72.

As can be seen in FIG. 1, perimeter walls 31-34 may form an outer perimeter surrounding container sections 51-58. In some embodiments, the perimeter walls may be configured to retard heat transfer between the exterior of the frame and the interior of the frame. Thus, perimeter walls 31-34 may function to thermally insulate container sections 51-58 from the ambient atmosphere. In this regard, perimeter walls 31-34 may comprise heat insulating material. In some embodiments, perimeter walls 31-34 may be at least partially hollow, thus trapping air to thermally insulate container sections 51-58.

In a preferred embodiment, heat insulating materials are those materials having a thermal conductivity of not greater than 0.7 W/mK (watts per meter-Kelvin). Examples of insulating materials include polyethylene materials such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) and/or low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene, polyurethane foam, polystyrene, polyamides, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), some types of wood and/or composites, among many others.

As shown in FIG. 1, interior walls 40-49 interconnect the perimeter walls to form container sections 51-58. While the system of FIG. 1 includes a 4×2 grid of container sections, as the reader can appreciate, the perimeter walls and interior walls may be arranged in a wide array of configurations to form a multitude of container section configurations.

At least one interior wall may be configured to facilitate heat transfer between neighboring container sections via heat conducting material. For example, interior wall 48 may comprise heat conducting material in order to facilitate heat transfer between container section 57 and container section 58. In some embodiments, all of the interior walls 40-49 may be configured to facilitate heat transfer.

In a preferred embodiment, heat conducting materials are those materials having a thermal conductivity of at least 1 W/mK. Heat conducting material may include metals, some types of wood and/or composites. Heat conducting materials may also include thermally conductive plastic resins having a thermal conductivity of at least 1 W/mK. For example, heat conducting materials may include COOLPOLY thermally conductive plastic resin manufactured by the Celanese Corporation. In one embodiment, the heat conductive material may have a thermal conductivity of 1 W/mK to 100 W/mK. In other embodiments, the heat conductive material may have a thermal conductivity of 2 W/mK to 50 W/mK. In other embodiments, the heat conductive material may have a thermal conductivity of 5 W/mK to 20 W/mK.

In some embodiments, at least one interior wall may be configured to retard heat transfer between neighboring compartment sections. For example, interior wall 49 may be configured to retard heat transfer between container section 57 and container section 55. In some embodiments, one or more interior walls may be at least partially hollow. In some embodiments, the interior walls may retard heat transfer via heat insulating material.

In some embodiments, the multi-compartment insulated container system may be configured to have two or more thermal zones. For example, container sections 51-54 may comprise a first thermal zone and container sections 55-58 may comprise a second thermal zone. The interior walls within a thermal zone may be configured to facilitate heat transfer. For example, interior walls 40-43 and 46-49 may be configured to facilitate heat transfer. The interior walls that separate thermal zones may be configured to retard heat transfer. For example, interior walls 44-45 may be configured to retard heat transfer.

Thus, the first thermal zone may be kept at a first temperature while the second thermal zone may be kept at different temperature. For example, given the two thermal zones described above, container sections 51 and 54 may be filled with ice, thereby keeping items in container sections 52 and 53 cool, while container sections 55 and 58 may be filled with a source of heat, for example a hot-pack or other heat source, thereby keeping items in container sections 56-57 warm.

In one embodiment, the interior walls may be configured to facilitate a thermal cascade from one compartment section to the next. For example the hottest items may be placed in container sections 51-52 while the coldest items may be placed in container sections 57-58, thereby creating a thermal cascade through the container sections 53-56.

As shown in FIG. 1, compartment sections 51-58 are arranged in a grid on an X-Y plane. Is some embodiments, a first group of interior walls comprises interior walls that separate neighboring compartment sections in the X direction, e.g., interior walls 41, 43, 44, 45, 49 and 47. The first group of interior walls may be configured to retard heat transfer. A second group of interior walls comprises interior walls that separate neighboring compartment sections in the Y direction, e.g., interior walls 40, 42, 46, 48. The second group of interior walls may be configured to facilitate heat transfer. Thus, the compartment sections may be divided into thermal zones in rows. While several examples of thermal zones have been described, as the reader can appreciate, any number and configuration of thermal zones may be envisaged.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a first example of an access hatch, access hatch 71 is shown. Exemplary access hatch 71 covers opening 61. In a preferred embodiment, each of the plurality of container sections may include an access hatch. In some embodiments, at least one access hatch covers at least two openings. The access hatches may comprise insulating material to insulate the interior of the compartment sections from the ambient atmosphere.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, access hatch 71 includes hinge 74. In other embodiments, the access hatch(es) may not include a hinge. Access hatch 71 may seal on the rim of opening 61. For example, access hatch 71 may have a gasket seal, compression seal and/or raised ribs to mate with recessed channels, among other methods of sealing.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a second example of an access hatch, access hatch 72 is shown. Exemplary access hatch 73 covers opening 61. Access hatch 72 includes a viewing window 73 to allow a user to see the contents of the container section. Access hatch also includes a label sleeve 75 configured to display a label.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a plan view of system 20 is shown, including food items 201, 202, 204, 203. System 20 includes ice 130 filling every other container section. System 20 also includes space filling bodies 120-124 configured to fill empty space in the container sections, thereby increasing thermal conductivity between the ice 130 and food items 201 and 204.

In some embodiments, the space filling bodies 120-124 comprise heat insulating material. In this regard, the space filling bodies 120-124 may help to insulate a cold (or warm) item from the ambient environment. In some embodiments, the space filling bodies 120-124 comprise heat conducting material. In this regard, the space filling bodies 120-124 may help to transfer heat between an item and the interior walls of the container section in which it is contained. Thus, the user may configure the heat transfer properties of the system 20 via the space filling bodies 120-124.

While FIG. 4 depicts system 20 being used to keep food items cold, other items may be used with system 20 including beverages, medicine, lab samples or any other item which would benefit from being kept cold. Furthermore, system 20 may be used to keep items warm, including food items, beverages, or any other item which would benefit from being kept warm.

In some embodiments, the system may include an insulated bottom (not shown) to insulate the container sections from the ambient environment and allow the system to be used absent an exterior container.

Turning now to FIG. 5 a, a plan view of a second embodiment of a multi-compartment thermally insulated container system 22 will now be described. System 22 includes many similar or identical features to system 20. Thus, for the sake of brevity, each feature of system 22 will not be redundantly explained. Rather, key distinctions between system 22 and system 20 will be described in detail and the reader should reference the discussion above for features substantially similar between the two systems.

System 22 includes perimeter walls, interior walls and container sections 51-58. System 22 further includes a plurality of slots formed in the edges of each of the interior walls. In some embodiments, system 22 may include one or more heat conducting inserts and/or heat insulating inserts.

FIG. 5 b is a plan view of one example of an insert (e.g., a heat conducting insert or a heat insulating insert). The inserts may be configured to slide into the slots, as shown in FIG. 6. The heat conducting inserts may comprise heat conducting material. The heat insulating inserts may comprise heat insulating material.

In some embodiments, each slot may be substantially the same dimensions as the other slots, thus the inserts may be interchangeable. In this regard, the heat transfer characteristics of at least some of the interior walls may be configurable by a user. For example, a user may, configure the thermal zones of the system 22 by inserting the appropriate inserts into the appropriate slots.

In one embodiment, a method of using a multi-compartment thermally insulated container system includes placing a first item into an opening of a first container section of a plurality of container sections, the plurality of container sections being disposed within a heat insulated exterior container. As described above, the plurality of container sections may be formed by a frame comprising perimeter walls and interior walls interconnecting the perimeter walls.

At least one interior wall may be configured to facilitate heat transfer between a neighboring container section via heat conducting material. As described above, the first container section includes a first opening. The first opening may have a first access hatch. The first access hatch may comprise heat insulating material

The method may include closing the first access hatch of the first container section, thereby covering the first opening and insulating the first item from an ambient environment.

The method may include controlling the temperature of the first item via heat conduction between a second container section and at least one neighboring container section. For example, the second container section may contain ice.

The method may include placing a second item into a second container section; and

controlling the temperature of the second item via heat conduction between the first container section and at least one neighboring container section.

The method of claim 16, wherein the first item is controlled to a substantially different temperature than the second item.

The method of claim 17 wherein the controlling step comprises creating a thermal cascade from a first perimeter wall to an opposite perimeter wall.

-   -   method includes closing the lid on the exterior container

The disclosure above encompasses multiple distinct inventions with independent utility. While each of these inventions has been disclosed in a particular form, the specific embodiments disclosed and illustrated above are not to be considered in a limiting sense as numerous variations are possible. The subject matter of the inventions includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and subcombinations of the various elements, features, functions and/or properties disclosed above and inherent to those skilled in the art pertaining to such inventions. Where the disclosure or subsequently filed claims recite “a” element, “a first” element, or any such equivalent term, the disclosure or claims should be understood to incorporate one or more such elements, neither requiring nor excluding two or more such elements.

Applicant(s) reserves the right to submit claims directed to combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed inventions that are believed to be novel and non-obvious. Inventions embodied in other combinations and subcombinations of features, functions, elements and/or properties may be claimed through amendment of those claims or presentation of new claims in the present application or in a related application. Such amended or new claims, whether they are directed to the same invention or a different invention and whether they are different, broader, narrower or equal in scope to the original claims, are to be considered within the subject matter of the inventions described herein. 

1. A system comprising: a frame configured to be housed within an exterior container, the frame comprising: perimeter walls; interior walls interconnecting the perimeter walls, thereby forming a plurality of container sections having openings; wherein at least one interior wall is configured to facilitate heat transfer between neighboring container sections via heat conducting material; and a plurality of access hatches covering at least some of the openings, wherein the plurality of access hatches are configured to retard heat transfer between the exterior of the frame and the interior via heat insulating material.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the perimeter walls are configured to retard heat transfer between the exterior of the frame and the interior via heat insulating material.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one interior wall is at least partially hollow.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one interior wall is configured to retard heat transfer between neighboring container sections via heat insulating material.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interior walls are configured to facilitate a thermal cascade from one compartment section to the next.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein heat transfer characteristics of at least some of the interior walls are configurable by a user.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a first interior wall includes a slot formed in an edge of the first interior wall.
 8. The system of claim 7 comprising: at least one removable heat conducting insert configured to slide into the at least one slot; and at least one removable heat insulating insert configured to slide into the at least one slot.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein each access hatch of the plurality of access hatches covers one respective opening.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one access hatch of the plurality of access hatches covers at least two openings.
 11. The system of claim 1, comprising: a plurality of space filling bodies configured to fill empty spaces within one or more container sections.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one space filling body comprises heat insulating material.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one space filling body comprises heat conducting material.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the frame is integral to the exterior container.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the frame is removable from the exterior container.
 16. A method comprising: placing a first item into an opening of a first container section of a plurality of container sections, the plurality of container sections being disposed within a heat insulated exterior container; wherein the plurality of container sections is formed by a frame comprising perimeter walls and interior walls interconnecting the perimeter walls; wherein at least one interior wall is configured to facilitate heat transfer between a neighboring container section via heat conducting material; and wherein the first container section includes an opening; and closing a first access hatch of the first container section, thereby covering the opening and insulating the first item from an ambient environment via heat insulating material.
 17. The method of claim 16, comprising controlling the temperature of the first item via heat conduction between a second container section and at least one neighboring container section.
 18. The method of claim 16, comprising: placing a second item into a third container section; and controlling the temperature of the second item via heat conduction between the third container section and at least one neighboring container section.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first item is controlled to a substantially different temperature than the second item.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the controlling step comprises creating a thermal cascade from a first perimeter wall to an opposite perimeter wall. 